Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene

Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene is an Ijaw and Urhobo Nigerian dyke performance activist, poet, dancer, essayist, playwright, actress, video blogger and mixed media visual artist who was born with a mouth full of dynamite and sugarcane. She uses her poetry to chisel a verbal sculpture of her soul for listeners while addressing issues of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, war, imperialism, love, self-esteem and family. Etaghene has self-published three collections of poetry, toured nationally and performed in over 30 u.s. cities. She was interviewed by and was a Contributing Writer to None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa, a sound documentary project that collects the stories of QLGBT Africans from the African Continent and the Diaspora. She has toured nationally with her multi-media one-woman show, Volcano’s Birthright{s}. Etaghene is a mixed-media visual artist who has produced 4 solo art exhibitions. In June 2012, Etaghene founded Sugarcane, an LGBTQ Of Color writing workshop based in the principles of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People.

Etaghene has written and directed 2 poem videos (“The First Time” [2010] and “i deserve somebody” [2011]) that marry film, poetry and music. Etaghene has self-published 3 chapbooks of poetry: afrocrown: fierce poetry (2000),write or die (2004) and tongue twisted transcontinental sista (2006.) She independently released an album of poetry and music entitled liberty avenue, nigeria, usa (2004.) She has shared stages with Amina Baraka, Bonfire Madigan, Sharon Bridgforth, Staceyann Chin, climbing poeTree, Invincible, DJ Kuttin Kandi, Lenelle Moïse, DJ Moni, Queen GodIs, Ongina Ryan, Hanifah Walidah & innumerable other brilliant magic-makers.

YALINI.DREAM

via Dark, Lovely and South Asian 

Lankan Tamil blood, Manchester born, Texas bred and Brooklyn steeped, YaliniDream is a queer performance artist, activist, and facilitator. One of the South Asian American community’s most prominent performance poets, YaliniDream has toured throughout the US, Canada, Europe and South Asia, performing in venues ranging from NYC’s Lincoln Center to subway cars to street protests to refugee camps to the hottest clubs in the New York underground. She was the Director of Mango Tribe’s NYC run of “Sisters in the Smoke” and “Creation Myth Project,” and served as the group’s Interim Artistic Director in 2007. As a movement artist, YaliniDream is trained in ballet, modern, jazz, Laban Movement Analysis, hip hop dance, and the aerial technique corde lisse. She holds a BA in Theater with a concentration in Acting & Directing from the University of Texas, Austin. 

Her official website is: http://www.yalinidream.com/

YaliniDream is also a member of The Sugaran Tour, a caravan of multimedia stories performed and presented by artist-activists including Nandini Nessa, Bushra Rehman, and Amita Swadhin. 

For more information, http://thesugarantour.tumblr.com/

theFixFixFix

You're welcome.

via Fuck Yeah, Queer Vintage

Also

Speaking of Girls and Zines...

To all my London same-gender-loving ladies, an art show is underway: Girls+Zines at Tatty Devine.

Wednesday 3rd August - Saturday 3rd September

Spanning a wide range of publications featuring anything from offbeat illustrations and collage to heartfelt musings and humorous revelations, Girls + Zines celebrates the originality of female zinesters. Browse our pop-up zine library while sitting on beanbags, and bring your own publications to display or swap at the in-store zine exchange!

Girl Crush

 

Girl Crush is a brand-new zine (literally, it drops this week) that celebrates the complex world of platonic girl-on-girl crushing. Helmed by two ladies rather worthy of girl-crushes themselves (Jenna Wortham is a reporter for The New York Times, Thessaly La Force is fresh off a plum gig at The Paris Review), its M.O. is the type of universal fascination that all women and girls feel about at least one other member of their gender. The zine was born from a discussion about these crushes on rad ladies like Joan Didion and Anna Karina via essays and even suggested recipes and playlists. Featuring work from the likes of Jennifer Egan, Leanne Shapton, and Mary H.K. Choi—among so many others—Girl Crush is instantly relatable and just a straight-up good read. The zine is available online for $10. 

So worth the $10... Follow them on Tumblr.

For a list of other cool, new zines to drop, check out this article from Refinery29.

For Gay Christian Musicians, Work Balances Faith, Art, Love [NPR]

Jeniffer Knapp

Many Christian denominations denounce homosexuality as a sin. As a result, gay Christian singers, songwriters and musicians face a challenge in balancing their art, their sexuality and their faith. For those few who have decided to come out, it has meant giving up successful careers.

Singer-songwriter Jennifer Knapp has sold more than a million albums and earned Dove Awards on the strength of songs like her 1998 hit, "Undo Me." But in 2002, at the height of her career as a contemporary Christian artist, Knapp suddenly stopped making music.

"Knowing that I was going to have to publicly deal with my sexuality — it really made me consider how much I wanted to participate in music," Knapp says.

Seven years later, Knapp reemerged, no longer self-identified as a Christian artist — instead, she was a folk-rock musician, a person of faith and a lesbian. Knapp says that even after all that time, she still had doubts about coming forward.

"It made me very hesitant to get back up into the public level, knowing that there would be discussion about my sexuality on the whole," she says.

FULL ARTICLE

Brownie Points: DC Comics [Autostraddle]

Batwoman is a Lesbian: DC Comics' Gay Superheroes Stepping Out of the Subtext and Into the Light

Last June, DC Comics announced that they were starting over. Starting over at number 1. 52 all-new #1 issues will be released in September, complete with updated characters, costumes, and origins. An entire new universe, with old icons and a new concept.

And the new DC Comics universe, they promised, would be hella gay.

YES!

Pariah

FINALLY!

MondoHomo: Music Revue

Thelma & the Sleeze, lost bois and Heavy Flow rocked the HOUSE! What a night. If you missed tonight, it's not too late to get your lady-gay on. Sunday (5/29):

Mondo Day Camp

12-4pm, FREE, Cabbagetown Park

Let’s get those yummy balls a swingin’ in a gayday of fun in the sun. This dyketastic park day is an all-ages Queer Family event with playground sports, BBQ, aerial play, fagtastic games with the Atlanta Radical Fairies ( http://www.radfae.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_58136741057), big gay pillow fight, music and outdoor cruising! Everybody Wins at the GayDay Games! Bring your A game and pillows!

…Exciting performances from Dance Truck https://www.facebook.com/atldancetruck?sk=info

and the Atlanta Sedition Orchestra!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xn3ekg9M5g&feature=related

Also...

7pm – MSR, East Atlanta Village – $7 – Mondo Cinema – queer film shorts
10pm – MSR, East Atlanta Village – FREE! – Mondo Finale – dance party

BuskFilms

I think I just had a heart attack. BuskFilms is queerly original and... ya know... Netflix on some serious lady-gay crack. That's right folks... there's a website out there that streams independent lesbian films. What? You heard me. You can watch lesbo movies til your heart's content. Or... if you're an independent filmmaker... get your ish watched  (and get paid at the same time)! The movie-lover in me definitely just had an orgasm. The films are available for rent online with a price comparable to On-Demand. Not exactly cheap, but it is in support for a community that's ever gaining ground. The shear accessibility of these films is nothing like I've seen in the lady-gay community before. Perhaps I'll finally get to see Pariah, or the many other indie flicks I couldn't get my hands on no matter how hard I tried. HOOZAH!

This video is NSFW.

BuskFilms - Promo from BuskFilms on Vimeo.

Like

Black Sun

MondoHomo

As a lezzer blogger who lives under a rock, I have just found out some exciting news from a friend! An annual Queer Arts and Music Festival in Atlanta called MondoHomo is going down May 26th-30th. It is the South's queer art, spoken word, dance party, hip-hop-electro clash, politics, film, BBQ, circus arts, theater, music, burlesque, social action diversity-lovin' festival of fun queer space. That sounds fantabulously gay, amiright? And it gets better... most of the events are FREE!!! I'm particularly excited to see D.C.'s lost bois (I blogged about b.steady of lost bois some time ago) and have a gander at some New Orleans (represent) artists. 

Their manifesto:

Whereas we believe that the New South is rising with a battlecry of justice, glorious diversity, power to the people, and a groundswell of creativity; 

We seek to bring together queers and allies from the South and across the nation to celebrate the culture, music and arts of independent queer artists and performers! 

We seek to expand the boundaries of queer identity and indie culture, and to forge broad alliances among queers, indie artists, and activists; 

We seek to spread the anti-consumerist DIY/punk ethic of no experts, I’ll do it myself, thanks; 

We seek to make political change through art and music, and to make art and music that is fundamentally politically; 

We seek to share skills, ideas, strategies, resources, and most of all, the music and arts we love; 

We seek to support and embolden all those who oppose corporate takeovers of our cities and cultures, and our country’s pervasive and systemic racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and denial of equality to all those considered ‘different’. 

Most of all we seek a revolution we can dance to! 

Check out their schedule of events!

All Nite Coco

via Creative Coolture

Beneath My Hands

by Leonard Cohen

Beneath my hands
your small breasts
are the upturned bellies
of breathing fallen sparrows.
Wherever you move
I hear the sounds of closing wings
of falling wings.
I am speechless
because you have fallen beside me
because your eyelashes
are the spines of tiny fragile animals.
I dread the time
when your mouth
begins to call me hunter.
When you call me close
to tell me
your body is not beautiful
I want to summon
the eyes and hidden mouths
of stone and light and water
to testify against you.
I want them
to surrender before you
the trembling rhyme of your face
from their deep caskets.
When you call me close
to tell me
your body is not beautiful
I want my body and my hands
to be pools
for your looking and laughing.

Sophia Wallace Photography

Sophia Wallace is a fine art photographer based in New York City. Wallace's art practice addresses social constructs, aesthetics of beauty, family histories and intimate relationships. To this end, she utilizes and often merges various photographic approaches including portraiture, fashion, performance, and personal narrative. Wallace has received critical acclaim for her work including honorable mention in MAGENTA Flash Forward, CENTER Project Competition, 100 Portraits–100 Photographers FotoWeekDC, Flak Photo, American Photography AP-25, AP-24 and ARTslant. Her solo exhibition 'The New Masculine' was shown at Leslie/Lohman Gallery, which is followed by a two person show at the gallery that also features her work. Additional shows in New York include TASCHEN Gallery, Umbrella Arts Gallery, Aperture Gallery and Sasha Wolf Gallery. She has also shown at Kopeikin Gallery, Carnegie Art Museum and internationally at the Assembly Room in London. Editorial clients include The New York Times - Style Section, T-Magazine and The Guardian. Wallace earned a BA in Government with a minor in African American Studies at Smith College in 2000. She went on to attain a MA in Photography from New York University and the International Center of Photography in 2004. Born in Seattle in 1978 she currently resides in Brooklyn. 

CHECK HER OUT

Where Did You Go Last Night? « Thought Catalog

Where Did You Go Last Night? « Thought Catalog

Taiwan gets its first locally produced lesbian magazine

 via Focus Taiwan

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) Taiwan's first lesbian magazine hit bookshelves Saturday, as part of the minority group's efforts to take a more prominent role in the society.

The quarterly magazine "LEZS" features topics that range from fashion trends to gender issues in the field of art.

"We are tired of the 'don't ask, don't tell' tradition in our society, " said the magazine's editor-in-chief Wang An-i, adding that the launch of the magazine marked the beginning of a revolution.

The publication will not only discuss gender issues in Taiwan but will also help gay women in Taiwan to connect with overseas lesbian communities, especially those in China and Japan, she said.

Issue no. 1 of Taiwan's first lesbian magazine "LEZS" will soon be available
in stores. Picture: A lesbian-themed film promotion photo.
(Photo Courtesy of AtomCinema)

A local non-governmental organization that promotes gender equality welcomed the publication, saying that it was an indication of greater multi-culturalism in Taiwan.

"The publication will contribute to the dialogue on gay rights in Taiwan," said Tsai Wan-fen, secretary-general of Taiwan Women's Link. "We hope to see more magazines of its kind in the near future." (By Lee Hsin-Yin) enditem /pc

Sexy Lesbian Alert: Taschka Turnquist

Well, maybe not lesbo. Maybe queer. And in true queer-o-color fashion, she's an artist: http://www.taschkaturnquist.com/